29th of September - Michaelmas
29th of September is the 272nd day of the year
Michaelmas:
St Michael’s Day is one of the more interesting saints' days in Britain, for several curiously interwoven reasons. Michael is an archangel, or for some the archangel. His popularity in this country stems it is said from his position as the head of the fighting forces of the heavens, leading them against Lucifer and often depicted slaying a dragon. On this day the Lord Mayor of London is elected, and not by coincidence: it was once thought fitting to choose people for high office on the feast day of the chief among angels.
Such an important feast day was also a quarter day (and remains so), the start of Michaelmas, when rents were due, courts began to sit, many annual contracts to work were ended etc. From this came the old habit of eating goose on Michaelmas Day, something once as common as eating turkey at Christmas now, the bird killed as a gift or part payment for your landlord, who would have had plenty thus to distribute as gifts in turn or to sell.
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